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It is important that a keyboard is very responsive and it should not take a lot of fingertip pressure to use.
Mechanical keyboards are technically superior, both for typing and playing games especially where you are holding keys for a long time, or using rapid combinations for movement / selections.

Membrane (sometimes called 'mesh') keyboards have two insulator sheets that sit underneath all the keys, with contacts directly under each key. When the key is pressed it pushes that section of the sheets together to make the electrical connection.
The key is raised again either by a rubber dome that is pressed out of the top sheet, or by one that is part of the key stem.
With fewer parts and less metal they are cheap and easy to manufacture, but can wear out very quickly, and tend to have a very spongy and unreliable/inconsistent feel to them do to the rubber wearing out

Mechanical keyboards have a switch under each key, with a spring, some make a clicking noise as the spring pings out and the middle of it hits the sides of the switch housing.
Different switches give a different feel, and Cherry MX switches are rated >50 million key presses. They tend to be built like tanks and unless you regularly spill sticky/suggary based liquids into them they will easily last 15-20 years if not in fact your lifetime They are well worth the extra cost once you find the right one for you.

Key Roll Over

This is often refereed to as 'Anti Ghosting' which can refer to Key Roll Over, or membrane wiring/usb optimization. All are aimed at preventing the signal from keys being lost because you have pressed more than one key at the same time.

NKRO
n Keys can be pressed at once, mathematical n, as in any number.

6KRO
6 Key Roll Over
Any six keys can be pressed at once and still all register + modifiers (ctrl, shift, altl)

PS/2 vs USB

USB uses CPU time to constantly poll the keyboard for information, so a 1000hz usb keyboard interface will respond technically faster than a standard usb keyboard, but high CPU load could interfere.

PS/2 acts on interrupts, pressing a key fires an interrupt which calls the CPU to pay attention now and respond as and when it happens, there is no CPU load when keys are not being pressed.

The USB keyboard spec/driver limits USB only keyboards to 6KRO, the one known exception currently is the Microsoft SideWinder X4 (mesh) which claims 26 keys at once via USB.

NKRO keyoboards are all PS/2, and will be reduced to 6KRO at best if plugged in with a USB adapter.

I tried a Lycosa for a year for it's quietness and back-lighting. Finally I've decided it wasn't a matter of getting used to the pressure change and low profile keys, I just had to admit it was more effort and cause more cramping issues because of the positional and pressure strain. I had an old Cherry G80-3000 but wanted NKRO and a wrist wrest so bought a Steelseries 7G and I'm very happy with it so far. With a lot more money I would have bought a Deck Legend (amazing wear-free all plastic no paint keys) maybe even with cherry clear switches except sadly they are USB, and the 7G's wrist rest is still superior.

Now I *highly* recommend mechanical and NOT low profile simply for the player health benefits.

The high profile keys are easier to distinguish/find, and press for your fingers.
With the higher keys your fingers can naturally gently rest on them without having to be in a claw like position to avoid hitting the surrounding keys, when applying pressure in a claw position you are more prone to cramping.
Less pressure + more choice on finger position = less camp / rsi / better finger / hand health.

The mechanical action, responsiveness and recoil of switches is considerably less strain on your fingers than you will find on mesh keyboards, most mechanical keyboard switches are manufactured by Cherry with their MX range :

This all adds up to considerably less finger strain and cramps over long typing/gaming sessions.

These keyboards are more expensive than even a lot of souped up/light up/ reconfigurable mesh keyboards, but they truly really are worth it for your physical health alone, even above their gaming superiority and they can literally last a life time if cared for.

HEALTH/RSI

If you play for hours, or play regularly at all you must warm up your hands beforehand, many people completely overlook this as they never have to think about it generally in life, but before any repetitive finger/wrist action like martial arts, juggling, card tricks, pen spinning it's really important to get blood pumping through your cartilage to minimize build up of injury through repetitive action.

At the very least shake your hands from the wrist a bit, circle your arms from the elbows a few times, pump your hands (fully open - fist, repeat) a few times, and finally place your fingers/palms together and push your fingers back and forth a few times.
Warming up is in part literally that, getting warmer from your actions rather than external sources, it pumps your blood round your system, through your cartilage protecting your joints and making your muscle more pliable.

Don't avoid a few warmup exercises because 'I've been playing ages and feel fine', they're intended to make sure that you never suddenly find you really don't feel fine and have to go through months of work to MAYBE recover.

Consider even lower sensitivity thus you play by mostly arm instead of wrist, this is how by far the majority of pro duellers play, as it is more accurate. This also promotes the more relaxed 'palm grip' more.

If you take up low sens/arm play, or already play that way - warm up your arms, especially when start you WILL get arm strains if playing for long periods, and they'll be worse if cold.

Watch how long you play for, and play for less next time if any problems happen.

If you don't do this you can end up with tennis elbow / carpal tunnel/ RSI etc. Such tiny movements even without pulling weight are still very risky over time

Do read the KEYBOARDS section above to avoid RSI with your keyboard hand.

Around the time Quake2 was still active Microsoft literally changed the game with the release of the Microsoft Intelimouse Explorer v3 this was followed with the MS Intelimouse Optical 1.1 and the MS Wheel Mouse Optical (WMO) 1.1 mice. These were the first optical mice that didn't suffer from any sever tracking defects, skipping, sticking, or simply going completely crazy when you moved too fast and looping around the screen at random, even going backwards. They were the first mice that could truly replace any ball mouse, and are still viewed by many as simply unparalleled. Optical mice are very smooth to use, can be very very accurate. They are better than any ball mouse as there is no ball to stick or clean and less mechanical parts to break.

These MS mice use the MLT04 optical sensor and run at 6000 samples per second, and 400dpi. These mice are still used by a lot of the world top players as they often prefer what is now considered low dpi. They can be found very cheaply now (around 6 GBP boxless).

With mice as with any other item, if you have been told a version number, if you can't check the version number - don't buy you are getting an untested release. The MS explorer v4 for example has the same sensor, but it has been completely shunned by the gaming community for other reasons.

I swapped to a 1800dpi Razer Deathadder (DA) in 2009, they are about same size and weight as the inteli 1.1, they are superb now all the bugs have been fixed using the latest NDC firmware update (~30 GBP). Now upgraded to the 'Deathadder Black Edition' at 3500dpi, with a more comfortable grip and casing, a tiny bit more weight, the Deathadder is still one of the most popular and reliable mice

When looking at mice pro's are interested in :

Sensor Type (Laser / Optical)
Laser Mice are usually much more expensive
Laser mice tend to be heavier, and more sensitive to dust tracking errors

Sensor Model
This lets you research any known errors/problems online

Positive Acceleration
This may be something you can get used to, but most like zero, and then to adjust accel themselves if they wish

Negative Acceleration
This tends to be a game breaker, if a mouse has Neg Accel it is slowing down the faster you move so flick shots or any panic reactions are severely hampered.

Tracking errors
If the mouse starts to lose tracking in certain conditions, or certain surfaces, at certain speeds it can become unusable, and is certainly unreliable. For some game types or players that only physically move within the tolerance it may be acceptable. Few like to buy new mouse mats to avoid tracking problems.

LOD - Lift Off Distance
How far the mouse can be lifted before the sensor stops reporting data
Lower LOD is preferred so when repositioning the mouse on the mat the cursor doesn't move at all, otherwise your repositioning is negated, raising higher is more effort and more time wasting.

DC/NDC / Line Prediction
Drift Contol / No Drift Control
Firmware software 'enhancements' to predict/straighten lines, some low sensitivity players like this, but as a mainly high sensitivity player I found this to feel quite horrible, and removing it made the Deathadder feel like a significant input lag had been removed, suddenly it was as responsive as the IMO I used previously.

Deathadder 3.5G / Refresh / Left Handed
Avago ADNS-S3888
3500dpi max, left handed version available, sometimes called the 'refresh'.
Some report lift off issues, may be fixed in later firmware
No drift control, one firmware.

I've been thinking of picking up a Steel Series SX how has your been holding up?
is there any wear on it?
and how much does it wear the mouse feet?
. and what model cherry keyboard do you have and are all their mechanical keyboards good?

and also i believe the cheese mouse fix dependent on refresh rate not resolution correct me if I'm wrong

#.reg The 1-to-1, perfect line fixes, use whichever one is the refresh rate you game at.